here: His current listing of Barber dimes. http://www.ebay.com/sch/Barber-1892...lop=1&_sasl=vette1986&_sop=12&_dmd=1&_ipg=100 everyone has some kind of problem, from cleaned to obvious scratches, to hidden scratched.
under completed listings: 1895 O, key date: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Circulated-...D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557 cleaned, some scratches, and on the reverse, below "DIME" something was removed and smoothed, a clear problem coin
Have bid on some of their items but have not won any. With that number of feedback and at 100% you would assume they are doing something right.
I looked at most of the raw Franklin 50c. You almost get the feeling someone sat down with a $1000 bag of (silver) half dollars and pulled out the 50 best coins, wiped them on his shirt-tail, then listed them.
I bought two inexpensive cents from vette1986 in May. Cents came as pictured (detail, tone, etc) with fast shipping. No issues. I am still a novice so if the coins had been "gently cleaned", I would probably not have noticed. I only collect cents - good luck.
I have won 8 auctions on some BU Silver Washington Quarters that had ended late at night, so I got a good price. The service and shipping was great, and the coins all looked better in person than online. Maybe 25% of the ones that I received would be what I consider "gently cleaned". I paid a fair price and was happy with my purchases. No item was more than $12 though (most were under $10), so it would not have killed me in my cases. Older silver coins, however, look more heavily cleaned.
But he does not list it as uncirculated. There is nothing immoral about listing problem coins, and saying they are sold as is.
I should add that my experiences with regard to communication, shipping speed and proper packaging have all been excellent.
I have dealt with them several times over the years. The few coins I sent in to be graded came back okay or if it came back cleaned they took it back and refunded my money without question, even though he denied it had ever been cleaned. I have never had a problem with them as far as shipping, etc.
My only experience with him is that he does not know how to grade. I bought a Peace Dollar from him that was listed as Uncirculated when it actually was AU. Anyone who can't tell Uncirculated from Almost Uncirculated cannot be trusted. I will not buy from him in the future.
Of course... well, other than the fact eBay feedback, especially today, is about meaningless; some of the site's biggest dreck peddlers also have the highest rating. Likewise, in another collectible area I follow, there are a few known sellers with 100% feedback ratings who sell, and get this, NOTHING but cobbled together fakes. They've been doing it for years, placing said junk into countless collections, surely as items of pride to their respective owners who, unfortunately, have no idea their gem is really junk. If they knew the truth, do you really think they would have made the purchase or left glowing feedback? Of course not, and the same can be said with coins. On ebay, you've a huge pool of buyers, but how to know which feedback comes from the knowledgeable, and which comes from the inexperienced? The obvious answer: you cannot.
To be off by one grade is not a bad estimate. A lot of professionals argue between AU and Unc sometimes.
There is one seller on the bay who touts his PNG membership, surely as a way to give confidence to his buyers. Reasonable enough, right? Well, the interesting thing about this seller - another lotsa, lotsa dreck peddler - is that I cannot tell you how many times over the years I've watched a problem coin, offered at Heritage, TT, Stack's, etc, magically turn up not long after the auction ended, in his inventory as a raw, usually "problem free" coin. One that always comes to mind was one of the "baseball" variety LS50Cs. It was on Heritage residing in an NGC details holder for fairly severe obverse corrosion, but not attributed. When it appeared as one of this seller's offerings raw, said corrosion magically had turned into "toning" and had also become uncirculated. An uncommon neat variety, yes, and one probably worth the initial price of, IIRC, $190 even as its problem self, but the $500 or so (again, IIRC) the ebay buyer paid for this corroded circ toned unc, no. The point is only that those three little letters attached to a seller'/dealer's name, as with those who press their ANA membership, simply do not mean one can or should blindly trust them. Therw are many, many fine, knowledgeable, and honest dealers, well worthy of both respect and trust, who are not members and shouldn't be viewed as lesser for it.
I was looking at this seller myself. I was looking at a buyer protection case I was dealing with it and noticed how he purchased many coins in the past month. Perhaps he was using buyer protection since he had no clue what he got or didn't and looking at tracking to find out. Perhaps word is spreading you can easily win cases with no tracking. Anyhow, the seller has a lot of negative feedback. I don't know if they were all warranted though. I only negative a seller if there was a problem they didn't want to resolve. Most will though. Got a lot and the seller stated there was an 1885 Indian head and there was not so he mailed me one.
I know what you mean. I noticed there are others that grossly under-grade coins. Grading can be subjective but it is also true what people say. Grading depends if you are looking to buy or sell. Same dealer will call a coin VF when buying and then call it AU when selling. When this seller in question bought the coin, it was probably XF.
Asked about this guy just a couple days ago, so here's some more feedback on him: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/walking-standing-liberty-coins-on-ebay-cleaned.264883/
No, a PNG/ANA membership is no guarantee the seller is legit and honest. It's but one filter of several that I use when deciding to bid or not.